MMA News: Rolando Dy Hints At Retirement After Shocking Loss At BRAVE CF 56

Rolando Dy has seemingly announced his retirement from mixed martial arts (MMA) after suffering a controversial unanimous decision against Serbia’s Slobodan Maksimovic in the main event of BRAVE CF 56 in Belgrade, Serbia last weekend.

Dy posted a heartfelt Facebook post a few hours after the fight ended, blaming himself for not finishing the fight and letting it go to the judges’ scorecards.

“I thought I won the fight, two rounds to one, but it's my fault I wasn't able to finish the fight. It was a hard fight, but I felt I won the first two. It is what it is. Nothing will change if I rant about the decision. I humbly accept my defeat, officially. I don't want to be just a prizefighter. I want to be a world champ again, but that journey ends today,” he wrote.

Dy hoped that his road to contending for the BRAVE CF lightweight title would smoothen out by defeating Maksimovic, but it would not be the case.

In the first round, Dy repeatedly threw leg kicks with Maksimovic countering with high kicks that made the opening frame look equal, but it was the Filipino’s counterpunching and takedown defense that seemed to have won him the round.

Maksimovic returned the favor to Dy in the second round, with the 30-year-old Filipino responding well to the Serbian’s shots and took him down with a clean double-leg takedown.

However, Maksimovic got back to his feet and shot for a takedown that Dy denied, subsequently securing top position during the scramble.

For the better part of the third round, the fighters saw themselves fighting against the fence as Maksimovic attempted to quell the onslaught of the Filipino during their striking exchanges until the referee stopped them for inactivity.

The hometown hero scored big on the judges’ scored with a leg trip in the dying seconds of the round as Dy rained down elbows on his back until the final bell rang.

With a dominant performance in the first two rounds, it seemed as if Dy’s road to redemption was complete.

However, the judges’ scorecards saw it otherwise with one judge giving all three rounds to Maksimovic and the other two judges scoring it two rounds to one–a unanimous decision in favor of the Serbian.

Like all combat sports, MMA is no stranger to controversy and while it can be argued that Dy’s loss can be attributed to facing the hometown fighter in his backyard, but the results remain the same regardless.

Dy’s decade-long career features a 1-3 record in the UFC with a Fight of the Night bonus in his loss against Shane Young in June 2018 before returning to the Bahrain-based promotion in 2019.